The 4 Social Media Trends All Marketers Should Look Out For In 2011

How has social media affected our daily lives? What have you been using social media for? Checking out what George Bush is having for brunch? Posting comments on some photos of your best friend’s latest Milan shopping trip (with a tinge of jealousy)? Instant messaging your colleagues on where to go for booze tonight when you have tons of work to clear in office? Sharing a seriously hilarious video on YouTube that you cannot stop laughing at all day long? The list just goes on and on but you see that social media has often been thought of something used to pass the time or to have a bit of fun in it.

No doubt about that, businesses in 2010 have started to notice the massive audience present in the social media platforms and realize that it is time to capitalize on this market share to gain a competitive advantage. Soon, those who really wish to reach out to their online publics will have to start treating social seriously as the social aspects of the Web are about to become a whole lot more important.

GAME ON!

The real shift - that has started in 2010 - will develop and mature in 2011 and most certainly, we will see a move from social media marketing to social business. There is definitely a need for businesses to realize the benefits of the social platforms and the impact of how the social game is going to change their daily operations. The task in 2011 is clear now: adapt or you are out of the game ... Here are four trends that we have seen so far in social media marketing and trust me … we will see more of that in 2011.

Social Media Marketing Budget On The Rise

Studies have shown that businesses generally plan to increase their marketing budgets as the global economy picks up. This is hardly surprising though as new forms of media consumption grow, so too are the marketing dollars being poured into them. Furthermore, there is an increase in the number of brands which are prioritizing this expenditure on social media marketing over other forms of media. Businesses have changed their stance on this expense by treating it more as a regular (or integral) spending item rather than being experimental. With budgets for social media marketing clearly on the rise, those who are currently remaining tepid about the medium may jump in once the best practices of the social game are established and in general, the spending should continue to grow.

Rethinking The Value Of Social Media

As businesses allocate more budget for social media marketing, they will be asked to justify the performance and value that they will be deriving from this spending. No longer are we measuring the number of Twitter followers, the number of Facebook likes or the amount of web traffic that they can get. It has to be something even more concrete as businesses need to work out how implementing social media has enabled them to realize their business benefits. It can be the increase in revenue derived from these customers that you have connected with online … it can be the reduction in the resources that your helpdesk call centre requires as a result of customers contacting you online instead. 2011 will see brands building models to evaluate their social media metrics and conversions. We will see a shift from measuring what can be measured using a tape to showing value.

There’s More To Location-Based Marketing Than Just 70% Discount Vouchers

Social networking has finally gotten ever more important for the brick-and-mortar businesses. Location-based social networks (with enabling tools such as smart phones or iPads) allow users to interact, discuss, share and recommend places based on their physical geographical coordinates. This real-world social media connectivity can mean more foot traffic and profits for businesses. If 2010 was the year that these were developed and used by more people, 2011 will be the year that more brands embrace them to add value to their business operations. It is just going to become even more prevalent with more innovation with these tools.

It’s Not Just About Marketing … It’s Way Beyond That!

Finally, social media has always been much more than just about marketing and sales.
“It’s greater than marketing,” as Sandy Carter put it. She is the Vice President, SOA & WebSphere Marketing, Strategy and Channels for IBM Corporation. “Social media can transform everything from service and support to inventory management. It can even be part of your commitment to corporate social responsibility. For example, holding virtual events in Second Life was one way we chose to implement our green strategy.” Social media is about public relations, communications, customer service, insight and new product development. Social media is all about engagement … engaging your customers and prospects. Sandy has also learnt the most basic lesson of social media success: Listen. “50% of social media is about listening,” she said, “So the ultimate question you need to ask is, ‘Have you listened?’” Such is how businesses have transformed and we will definitely see more of that in 2011 and future.

As CEO of Affiliate Home Business, Jack Harold is an experienced Internet marketer and has helped thousands of his students to apply Internet marketing strategies to succeed online. If you will like to know how to make money online, you can grab a free copy of his exclusive “The Rags To Riches Blueprint” at his website, Affiliate Home Business.

[Image Credit]

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It’s The Social Media Time and Resources, Stupid!

Remember not so very long ago (probably just yesterday) when someone looking to really get involved in social media for business was told “It’s free so just go for it!” ? This usually came from a social media “expert / guru / ninja / maven / superstar / hero / stud / wizard /expert” (oops, already used that last one so I must be out of pathetic self-naming options).

This ‘expert’ actually didn’t realize that by promoting the medium as easy and free that no one would pay them to help them (hey, if there are any experts etc. etc. in finance who want to teach social media people what it means to be in business there is “gold in them thar hills” for sure). This phenomenon has created our current glut of social media ‘talent’ looking for a check which means they will say anything to get someone to sign up with them (look to the search marketing industry to see how well that has worked out).

But I digress. What the business world is finding out that despite the ‘low cost’ there is actually a very high cost to effectively be in the ‘social media for business’ game. Those who do this game for real know this already but for the poor Director of Marketing at XYZ Company the reality of what it takes is becoming very harsh very fast.

A survey conducted by R2Integrated (Internet marketing / social media service provider alert!) and reported by eMarketer shows that people trying to get into the social media game are getting a crash course in ‘there is no such thing as a social media free lunch’.

Looking at those results I wonder if there is not enough time and / or resources to do the other things listed like overcome skepticism of ROI, decide what platform, get executive buy-in, getting started and then learning the tools. Forget how much time it takes after you accomplish these things!

Once the social media marketing wannbe has cleared the hurdles stated above a curious thing happens. They realize that they still don’t’ have enough time and resources to do the social media marketing game effectively.

So what does this mean for the industry as a whole and the poor marketing executive for the upcoming year? I think it means that the social media industry needs to do a much better job of conveying the realities of the practice rather than promoting the fantasy of it. The social media “industry” is looking like a mirror image of its search marketing cousin that is rife with snakeoil salesmen and scam artists that it has lost credibility in the place it needs it most: the client side.

Stop with the hyperbole and the delusions that are more pitch than practical. Stop with the moving on to the next best thing that no one outside of the industry has heard about or understands and concentrate on the basics. Heck, these basics are still being hammered out so how in the world can the industry keep moving forward without collapsing the foundation of sand it has created?

As for the bewildered marketer? I would recommend a very serious assessment / audit process to start your 2011. Take the time to see exactly where your current strategies are working (so keep them) and not working (reassign the time and resources from dead spend to better areas). You may find that by trimming the excess marketing fat you can free up existing time and resources that were being wasted on the wrong activities. There, problem solved .

Of course, nothing is that easy. However, if we all spend 2011 plowing forward without truly owning what has or has not been done to stabilize the art of social media we can call 2011 “The Year the Social Media Industry Shot Itself in the Foot by Promising Too Much Too Soon.”

Your take?

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Do the Big Brands Have an Advantage When it Comes to Social Media?

Social media is the great equalizer; Lady Gaga (VEGAS tonight, gambling and inappropriate attire to ensue ) Tweeting alongside Taylyr, the junior high school student with a band (:/ im in QUIET the awful state. im pretty sure i dont want to go to school in the morning). Facebook, where you can have updates from TV vampires right next to reminders from your mom. Age, race, socio-economic status, celeb or regular Joe — there are no barriers in social media.

So why is it that the big brands are dominating when it comes to social media marketing? That’s the question Brian Sheehan is asking over at AdAge.

“The dominance of big marketers is in many ways a straightforward matter of resources. For example, Pepsico’s Gatorade has a group of full-time staff who man their “Mission Control” room, monitoring and participating in social media 24 hours a day. Smaller brands may not be able to afford that.”

Resources are good. Money, creative teams, access to software and tools others don’t have. But how important are all of those things when it comes to writing a daily Tweet. Does Nabisco really have an advantage over the Incredibly Edible Cookie Company? I say it’s not about the resources, so much as it’s about brand recognition. If I were to ask 100 people to follow only one of these two companies, most people would pick Nabisco simply because they know the name.

How do you get around big dog? By being creative. Look at Old Spice. They made a terrific video that went viral, but there are thousands of no-cost, homemade videos on YouTube that go viral, too.

You don’t need an expensive ad agency to create a social media campaign.  Just look around. Check with your staff, your family and your friends. I’ll bet someone in that group has a good idea. That’s what social media marketing is really about, a good idea. An idea that hooks the people in and makes them want to share it with their friends.

Social media marketing is the one area where money and resources shouldn’t matter. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube are all free to use and let me tell you something, brand loyalty only goes so far. If you become known as the DVD seller who has the funniest movie reviews, consumers will be hitting your Facebook page every week before they head over to Netflix.

What do you think? Do big brands have the social media advantage or can the little guy hit it big on Facebook and Twitter?

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Does the Rise in Social Media Marketing Equal a Rise in Holiday Sales?

There’s no doubt that this is the year of the social media holiday marketing blitz. More folks than ever are using Facebook, Twitter and other sites to encourage holiday shopping.

According to eMarketer, 27% of retailers said they’d spend most of their marketing budget on social media, up from 18%. And 75% said they had a social media strategy this year as opposed to only 51% last year. But does this rise in activity mean a rise in sales?

We’ve been told that Black Friday and Cyber Monday both did very well this year, but is it as a result of all the social media air time?

Practical eCommerce took a look at this very question and came up with some interesting answers. They began with numbers from Hitwise who said that, “social networks referred 4.39 percent of traffic to the top 500 retail sites on Black Friday 2010.”

4.39? That’s not so much.

Their expert, George Eberstadt, CEO of TurnTo Networks says:

“The social stigma against shilling is as strong today as it’s ever been, and that limits the amount of commerce-related sharing that’s ever going to go on – the popularity of social media hasn’t changed that.”

Shilling. Haven’t heard that word in awhile, but it’s a valid point, except during the holiday season. Because everyone is on a buying spree, we’re much more likely to tolerate a barrage of sales Tweets and updates. But imagine if marketers maintained that same enthusiastic level of social media marketing throughout the entire year? I love a good deal, but I’m already growing weary of the onslaught.

The article goes on to say:

“Eberstadt added that he believes social commerce will ultimately be more important to brands and stores than social media marketing. “Social will be more important as a discovery and decision-making tool for people that are in-market for goods and services than as a way to promote and advertise.”

An interesting distinction and one I believed we’ve addressed here before. It’s the difference between conversational Facebook updates and a continuous stream of sales pitches.

So while your Facebook and Twitter followers might be okay with “Save 50% on Blu-ray Players” today, after Christmas they’re more likely to respond to “what’s your favorite movie on Blu-ray?” They’ll not only respond but they’ll share their answer with their Facebook friends who will also come and answer, resulting in more “likes” for you and more potential customers when one of them decides to buy a Blu-ray player.

What do you think? Are your social media efforts paying off in actual sales, or is brand awareness the ultimate goal?

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ShareThis Adds Social Media Analytics

The biggest problem with social media marketing is that it’s hard to measure your results. You throw everything you have at Twitter and Facebook and mostly you just hope to see an upswing in traffic.

To alleviate this problem, ShareThis, the social media sharing widget, is adding an analytic component that will not only measure sharing but will also monitor the Social Reach. Social Reach looks not only at the outbound sharing but it follows through to see if the person who gets the link clicks on it, thus completing the circle of [blog] life.

According to ShareThis’ website, the new analytics will also deliver numbers related to the type of audience that is sharing your links and it will compare your blog to others in the category to see if you’re doing better or worse than your competition.

To show the impact of their new tool, ShareThis has provided an infograph made from information collected across the 850,000 publishers in their system.

What’s interesting to note here is that Twitter isn’t very effective when it comes to social reach. Only 8% of people are clicking on what they’re sent, while the return on both email and Facebook are nearly equal. Many people have been warning marketers not to give up on email and this graphic shows why.

The information I’m interested in seeing is how these numbers change when you drill down into the various categories. Do entertainment tweets get clicked on more often than business tweets, for example? These are the numbers you need to have in order to make the most of your social media marketing campaign.

Right now, ShareThis is beta testing the new reports so not everyone has them. If you’re on WordPress, though, you should go in an upgrade your ShareThis widget. They have clean, new buttons that are a huge improvement over the old design.

ShareThis says they expect to fully roll out the new reports within the next few weeks.

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Social Media Marketing Insight from 21 Smart People (And Me, Too)

There’s a new book out called Success Secrets of the Social Media Marketing Superstars. Yes, that title sets off my hyperbole radar a bit too (not to mention my alliteration alert), but it’s a solid collection of smart social media advice based on real-world case studies, best practices, and proven techniques.

I wrote Chapter Two of the book – The Psychology of Social Media. It’s about applying tried-and-trued influence factors in the social media space to build a business or make whatever case you’re trying to make.

Here’s what else you’ll learn:

• How to Create a Mega-Following With Social Media – Gary Vaynerchuk
• Personality: How To Stand Out In Virtual Crowd – Andy Wibbels
Build Strong Online Communities Using Social Media – Chris Brogan
• Creating Content People Care About: The Cornerstone of Social Media – Ann Handley
• Building Your Social Media Relationship Strategy – Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz
• Mastering Online Marketing: Six Key Principles – Mitch Meyerson
• Social Media Success Qualities – Joel Comm
• How To Communicate With Impact Using Social Media – Craig Valentine
• How To Profit From Your Social Media Efforts – Starr Hall
• PR Strategies for Social Media – Dan Janal
• Making Your Content Go Viral With Social Media – Michael Stelzner
• Business Blogs: How To Make Your Blog The Centerpiece of Your Social Media Enterprise – Denise Wakeman
• Facebook: The Essential Rules For Building a Large and Loyal Following 
 – Mari Smith
• Twitter: Your Power PR Tool for Attracting A Tribe of Raving Fans – Deborah Cole Micek
• LinkedIn: Transforming Networks into Dynamic Business Connections – Barbara Rozgonyi
• YouTube: Leveraging the Power Of Google To Get Your Video Content To Millions – Julie Perry
• Podcasting: Leveraging the Power of Apple To Get Your Content To Millions – Paul Colligan
• Using Social Bookmarking To Improve Your Traffic, Links and Visibility – Chris Garrett
• Mobile Marketing: How To Integrate this Powerful Tool With Your Social Media Marketing – Kim Dushinski
• Online Video: A Mini Guide to Your Own Web Show – Shama Kabani
• Social Media In One Hour A Day – Dave Evans

Head over to the website for the book and check it out. I’m not an affiliate or being compensated for this in any way, so buy the book however you’d like. I think you’ll get a lot out of it, and at less than $15, it’s hard to go wrong.

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Getting in Gear with Social Media News

How about a round-up of social news stories making the rounds on the Web today? There are some important landmarks for social media watchers to be aware of in the journey toward social media success.

A quick view of the roadmap first:

• There’s a social media traffic jam in the B2B lane.

CC BY SA 2.0

• Google still drives more trust than social media channels.
• Users beware stranger danger! Don’t fall for social media candy.
• There’s a powerful new competitor in the race. Keep up!

Now buckle your seat belts and away we go!

Social Media Marketing Breaks Down on B2B Lead Generation

Social media marketing is a weak method of B2B lead generation, according to a study by LeadForce1. Product pages and contact pages were among the least-visited page types from social sources, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. From Facebook, visitors check out about pages and blogs most, and product pages least. From Twitter, blogs take the top spot, with product pages trailing behind in third place. And visitors from Facebook and Twitter visit just one page of a B2B site more than 63 percent of the time. Though, while social media traffic can’t be counted on for driving instant sales, this study doesn’t negate the community building, engagement generating and branding powers of social media marketing. Just be sure SMM goals line up with social media’s strengths.

Social Media Companies Still Have a Lot of Ground to Gain in User Trust

While Twitter and Facebook are the life of the party on the Web, Google, Apple and Microsoft are still far and away more trusted by the American public. Apple, Microsoft and Google were found to be trusted by 49 percent of adult respondents, while Facebook and Twitter were trusted by 13 percent and 8 percent, respectively. Among a younger crowd (18- to 29-year-olds), the established tech giants still had higher trust ratings than the social media companies, although Facebook and Twitter were viewed more trustworthy by the younger group at 20 percent and 15 percent, respectively. (It’s interesting to note that none of the above faired as poorly on the trust meter as traditional media.) The trust level of Internet marketing channels including search engines, computing device manufacturers and social media sites is worth consideration when deciding the strengths and best use of such channels.

Avoid Stranger Danger on Social Media’s Mean Streets

I knew my fears of broadcasting your whereabouts to the world were well founded. David Harry is shining a light on the trouble with services like Foursquare that encourage users to post their current locations online. The exploitable personal detail that Dave was able to find in a few short search sessions is shocking. I’m sure you can understand how sharing your home location and then sharing your current location is enough info for a would-be thief to know the coast is clear and for how long. Teens are among the most vulnerable to predation as they often share personal information without a clear understanding of potential consequences. The old saying “don’t talk to strangers” is just as relevant online today as ever before.

There’s a New Car on the Track — BlueGlass Interactive

Search & Social, 10e20 and Brent Csutoras, Inc. were always forces to be reckoned with in the Internet marketing industry, but now that they’ve teamed up, you better be ready for a challenge to your SERP space. Luckily for us, the individual members of the new BlueGlass Interactive team are all incredibly active in the community. They frequently speak at search conferences, publish news, tactics and strategies on Search Engine Journal, and organize their own educational conference series, with the next soon taking place in L.A. Recognize the challenge of a new Internet marketing force on the field and use their offerings to your advantage to push your pedal to the metal.

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The Secrets To Social Media Marketing

Charlie Cook, the man who wrote The New Profit Rules, is back with the secrets to social media marketing. Charlie has assemble eight social media experts to teach you exactly how to leverage the power of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook for make more money for your business.

So here’s how we developed this program. Recently I had a Tele-Seminar Event where I put each of these 8 experts on the “Hot-Seat” and had them reveal strategies, formulas, tips and tricks that their clients have paid large sums of money to discover.

Each one of these training sessions is about an hour long and you can listen to them in their entirety on MP3 for each of the eight training calls.

In addition to these eight MP3s you’ll also be getting eight transcripts of each interview so you’ll have all this information at your fingertips.

List of Speakers and Topics

• Carrie Wilkerson – Where To Focus Your Social Media Marketing To Rapidly Expand Traffic and Profits
• Jan Vermerien – The Quick and Easy LinkedIn Tactics For Building Your Online Network of Hot Contacts and Leads
• Paul Dunay – How to Use Facebook to Attract New and Repeat Business and to Grow Their Annual Revenue
• Jack Humphrey – The Fastest Way to Attract More Prospects to Your Business With Your Blog
• Ryan Healy – How to Create a Killer Blog That Builds Credibility and Profits
• Kyle Lacy – The Top Ways to Use Twitter to Dominate Your Market
• Warren Whitlock – Advanced Twitter Marketing Strategies Guaranteed to Boost Business Revenue
• Perry Lawrence – Video Marketing Made So Easy Anyone Can Do It

I’ve been listening to the MP3s for the past few days and so far, it’s been really good and extremely informative. I especially like the ideas Jack Humphrey presented for using a blog to attract prospects to your business. The video marketing module from Perry Lawrence was also very good.

Because everything is in MP3 format, you can load it into your iPhone/iPod and play it whenever you want. For me, it’s generally at the gym when I’m on the elliptical trainer. A PDF transcript is included for those who like to read. In addition to the main eight speakers, The Secrets To Social Media Marketing includes a bunch of free bonuses. There’s a 65 page eBook on how to profit from social media plus six other social media money-making resources.

Social media is one of the driving forces behind my marketing strategy. It’s also one of the most cost effective because it many case, it doesn’t cost anything. All boggers, Internet marketers and business people need to learn and use social media and The Secrets To Social Media Marketing is a good place to start. In addition to the free bonuses, Charlie is offering a $100 discount on his program. The Secrets To Social Media Marketing is also backed by a 100% Money-Back Guarantee. it’s worth checking out.

Download The Secrets To Social Media Marketing

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Social Media Marketing Magazine Launches Online

The social media space has plenty of information flying around every second of every day. If you don’t have any real work to do just spend your day reading articles recommended by every social media practitioner and their brother. You’ll be busy.

In an effort to ‘cut to the chase’, get through the clutter and offer some different perspectives on social media marketing a new digital offering, Social Media Marketing Magazine is being unveiled today.The online publication is described on their site

Social Media Marketing (SMM) Magazine’s innovative editorial approach features the expertise of a number of marketing leaders from the business, publishing, and academic communities.

With their unique perspectives, SMM Magazine helps you navigate through the social media maze and emerge with a more clear understanding of how to achieve your marketing goals by applying effective strategies, tactics, and best practices.

The magazine is the brainchild of Kent Huffman, CMO of BearCom Wireless and Chuck Martin, Director, Center for Media Research, MediaPost, and Chairman / CEO of NFI Research. Both have very deep marketing backgrounds and are evolving right along with the rest of the marketing world as social media becomes a natural addition to the Internet marketing mix and the overall marketing mix of companies and organizations in marketing’s new world order.

The initial issue features articles from social media heavyweights like former Kodak CMO Jeffrey Hayzlett, author David Meerman Scott and Stanford University professor, Dr. Jennifer Aaker.

In the interest of full disclosure there is a blog and there are many folks included in that initial effort including a post from yours truly.

So take a look and see what is being said about social media marketing not just from your peers but from the perspectives of academia and authors as well. In an industry of fragmented content about this ever-emerging discipline, Social Media Marketing Magazine may be the needed aggregator of content and talent that help make sense of it all.

When you have visited the magazine let us know your thoughts here at Marketing Pilgrim.

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Social Media Marketing Essentials for the Small Business Web Presence

The ever-changing paradigm of Internet marketing has greatly advanced a relatively recent phenomenon called social media marketing. In the broadest sense of the term, social media marketing (SMM) can and usually does embrace a number of outlets including: tweeting, blogging, viewer-supplied content sites, (such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube) email campaigns and cell phone texting (SMS.)

To think almost none of these marketing outlets even existed even as little as four or five years ago is breath-taking proof of the swiftness of the evolution of social networking when wedded to advancing internet technologies. Facebook now boasts over 400,000,000 members; The Florida Supreme Court, for example, is now posting information on Twitter at twitter.com/flcourts. One wonders if even Stanley Milgram, lead researcher of the famous “Small World Experiment”, could have envisioned how rapidly social networking in this hyper-fast environment could prove to be.

For you, the small business owner/marketer, SMM should not be over-looked, as indeed, it may well be one of the more effective tools at your disposal for rich content on your site, indeed as an integral part of your strategic marketing plan.

To be sure, engaging actively in developing SMM strategies and tactics is time-consuming to be effective. Michael Seltzer’s Social Marketing Media Report for 2009 found 64% of marketers used SMM five hours a week, while 39% were using it for ten hours or more. Yet this same report polled an amazing 88% of marketers who had been actively employing these new mediums for years with 72% who admitted they were just getting started with only a few months experience. Most significant in this report: more than 30% were sole proprietors actively using SMM in their small businesses.

Is the investment in time and energy worth it? These statistics would indicate that many certainly think so. So what are the better outlets for social marketing? Let’s examine some of the examples typically cited.

Facebook (and Similar Reader Supplied Content Sites)

When businesses and organizations discovered the supercharged “six-degrees of separation” phenomenon of this social network site, Facebook business pages devoted to promotion, marketing and PR cropped up in waves. The notable advantages of Facebook are:

1. It has a huge user base already using it that is likely also to include your existing customers.
2. It’s easy to use and readily accessible.
3. It can accommodate multi-media content, specifically tailored to your message.

Its few downsides such as a closed environment and the non-customizable formatting that is the trademark of Facebook are not really showstoppers. Its cousins, MySpace and LinkedIn for example, offer similar advantages and disadvantages but are tailored to differing demographics with uniquely differing outcomes. MySpace caters to a younger audience while LinkedIn is more of a networking site best suited for professionals and personal business contacts.

YouTube is an amazing opportunity to promote business products and services via reader-supplied videos. Some videos, even obvious business contrived contributions can go viral with tens – even hundreds of thousands of viewers overnight. It doesn’t require a lot of imagination to see the potential for the small business owner/marketer when these videos link to their web site. (Ref. www.facebook.com, www.myspace.com, www.linkedin.com, www.youtube.com)

Implementation: All of these social network websites simply require a free membership to get started and offer excellent help in the process and answering questions about their use. You link your web site to the page or posting — even using supplied graphical files of their recognized brand. All YouTube requires is the ability to create video files — easy enough using available editing software.

Blogging

Most businesses can profit with a blogosphere presence by either publishing a blog or advertising on one that draws the audience best suited for that business. Blogging has become a major force in disseminating opinion and news not typically found in traditional media. For that reason alone, small businesses find a hospitable and relatively inexpensive outlet for public relations, advertising and sales.

Because literally anyone can create and publish a blog, it is easy to get started. A vast array of free open-source solutions is available to assist you in the effort. Maintaining one is another story. Blogging, to be really effective, requires constancy and consistency. Again, social marketing does require an investment of time. The dividends are an environment relatively free of regulated restrictions and the potential for creating personal connection for customers and consumers with your message or opinions. Moreover, blogs allow for feedback with reader comments, a great way to harvest valuable opinion and insights. When a web site includes or links to a blog, it has the potential to offer customers, researchers and consumers a reason to become familiar with your business by connecting more personally with it. A great example of how well this can work would be GoDaddy’s colorful founder Robert Parson’s video blog. Whether you like him or not, he garners attention for his brand. (For examples and more information, see www.wordpress.org, www.movabletype.org, www.textpattern.com and others – Google: Blogging, blog software and blog forums)

Implementation: It’s possible to create full -blown web sites with WordPress (for example) with all of the structure and content management available in non-blog CSS/HTML, but often, you will link to your blog from your existing web site and vice-versa with a stand-alone blog site (complete with hosting if you like.)

Email Campaigns

Gradually supplanting “snail mail” direct mail campaigns, email campaigns are demonstrating a distinct advantage of messaging to controlled audiences with colorful and impacting content – and of course directly linking to your web site landing page.

Email has made the cost of direct contact advertising much more economical by eliminating costly printing and postage expenses. Lists are readily available from a number of reliable resources, (which you would need to obtain for direct mail anyway) including associations and memberships. Are these the people your business needs to target? If so, email deserves more attention from you than it often receives in a serious marketing plan – especially for small businesses.

But here is the important thing: think of email as social media marketing. When handled properly, it is a very powerful tool in your marketing arsenal, especially with the ubiquity of the Blackberry and other smart phones in use today.

Implementation: Creating HTML email and engaging a service for broadcast campaigns is relatively inexpensive. There are a number of competitive services available to help you with creating and sending them efficiently and hassle-free. (Examples: MailChimp.com, ConstantContact.com, www.iContact.com and others)

Twitter

Who would have thought that a communication idea like Twitter would have become the popular force it is today? Once again, the power of social networking has unleashed a simple yet powerful tool. In the words of Twitter itself: “Twitter connects you to your customers right now, in a way that was never before possible.” In addition to its useful immediacy, Twitter allows for a personal response or opinion to float out to any and all that are “following” you or your business. Twitter is more of an open environment than Facebook and so it tends to be easier to create a larger audience quickly.
How does it work? Again, it’s best described in Twitter’s own words: “Twitter lets you write and read messages of up to 140 characters, or the very length of this sentence, including all punctuation and spaces.” Messages can be sent and received from your laptop or your cell phone. They are real-time communication.

Why is that important? Let’s suppose you discover a benefit (or a complaint) one of your customers has twittered about your product or service. Something you may not have discovered on your own right away. Immediately you can begin promoting it (or doing damage control) right away, tweeting and posting on your blog or site accordingly. Trends and opinions are available to you and your business enterprise instantly and continuously.

Implementation: Becoming a twitterer really only requires signing up as a member and logging on. (Ref: www.twitter.com) Links strategically placed on your site would allow others to add your site to their follow list – which you would encourage of course.

Texting (SMS)

More and more businesses are using the cell phone to alert a customer to an important announcement or offer – assuming the customer has opted in for that. Many organizations other than your cell carrier are taking advantage of this.

For the small business, this can be a great way to develop customer’s awareness of your presence. Such messages can and should link directly to your site where the message is amplified with content related to the text. SMS stands for short message service. Simply put, it is a method of communication that sends text between cell phones, or from a PC or handheld to a cell phone.

Implementation: SMS services are available for a nominal fee to help in delivering messages to your customers and prospects. (www.interactivemediums.com, www.smseverywhere.com, www.openmarket17-px.rtrk.com and others – Google: SMS and SMS delivery) It is important to have a sign-up form on your site where users can opt-in for this service.

In Conclusion

A full generation – the Generation Y – has spent their entire lives with the computer and the subsequent flow of related technology that it embraces and embodies. Contemporary phenomena like Twitter and Facebook are just not phenomenal to them. If they represent a part of your businesses target demographics, you can’t even think of ignoring these social media marketing tools. But don’t make the mistake of thinking older generations are not using SMM in growing numbers too, because they are.

Malcolm Gladwell’s seminal book, “The Tipping Point” documented the extraordinary phenomenon of the tipping point and how often we fail to understand how it is achieved. It’s never an accident accident. For the small business that relies on their web site as a chief marketing tool, content alone, even sites using sound Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per-Click campaigns are well advised to include all the assets for their site they can get their hands on, and that certainly includes social media marketing assets if they hope to achieve the tipping point in their own business enterprise. Any or all of these SMM tools could be invaluable for you and your small business. The best advise is to try them out if they are new and unfamiliar to you and get to know how they work. Good ideas will ultimately flow from the experience to lead you along the way. You can get additional help and training from hundreds of forums as well as training sites like: www.lynda.com, www.videoprofessoronline.com and so many others all found online.

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